Does playing Nintendo's Wii or Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3 make you feel in control? Competent? Free? Connected?
Avid video gamer Michael Graf, 17, insists Wii is just "incredibly fun to play." His preference, though, is for massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPG. In them, dozens to hundreds to thousands of players go online simultaneously and play interactively in a virtual world.
"It's entertainment to the highest degree," said Graf, a student at Deep Run High School in Henrico County, Va. He said he plays after school and on weekends.
Sense of Freedom
Nongamers may be stumped by such passion.
It turns out that besides being fun, playing might fulfill some basic psychological needs, say researchers who have studied what motivates people to play video games nonstop.
"To many people, especially parents or friends who are not gamers, it is a mystery why games can be engaging for hours on end," said Richard Ryan, lead author of the study and a professor in the department of clinical and social psychology at the University of Rochester in New York.
"We've really been looking at how games either afford people challenges that help them feel competent or give them a sense of freedom maybe that they are not experiencing elsewhere or opportunities to connect with players," said Ryan, who did the research with Andrew Przybylski, a psychology graduate student, and Scott Rigby of Immersyve, a think tank focused on virtual environments.
"Those three things are really the things that are keeping people gripped in games," Ryan said. "Those are a lot of the things that people seek in other avocations, from their hobbies or sports or from other things. To the extent that they are available in games, then it seems to be something that keeps you pretty gripped."
Sprouting Subculture
It turns out video gamers are probably getting some of the same satisfaction that an avid golfer might get from scoring a hole in one while out with buddies, or the rush an avid seamstress might feel in showing off an intricately detailed, hand-stippled quilt to a sewing circle.
Gaming "is becoming more like a subculture, more like a lifestyle," said Jamil Matheny, 20, a journalist for gaming Web site Advanced Media. He said he has friends so engrossed in one online game, World of Warcraft, that they sometimes miss classes or barely sleep.
"You are talking to friends while you are playing the game," said Matheny. "The excitement is that you compete with each other to different levels. The higher you get, the more weapons you get, the more ability that you can achieve within each level."
Emotional Arousal?
Much of the research on video gaming has focused on addiction, the effects of games with high levels of violence and the effect hours of sedentary game playing has on physical fitness.
Some studies have suggested, for instance, that violent video games leave teens emotionally aroused in a way other video games don't. However, a different study with 213 participants whose ages ranged from 14 to 68 did not find any strong links between playing violent video games and real-life aggression.
In the research Ryan and the others did, they recruited male and female college students who were brought into a gaming lab at the university. They played mainly older games that avid gamers would probably find less challenging. Before and after playing, study participants filled out questionnaires that tested various measures.
The researchers also went online and recruited gamers who play in the multiplayer role-playing games.
The study results were reported in the December issue of the journal Motivation and Emotion.
Gaming Therapy
Some therapists have picked up on the power of games. At Children's Hospital in Richmond, Va., video games are used by occupational and recreational therapists to help develop fine-motor skills and as a reward.
"It's a good way to motivate," said recreational therapist Vernita Easley. Some games have adaptive controls that allow them to be controlled by a head movement, for instance. For those clients, game playing may increase their sense of independence.
"They can feel successful at something," said Carrie Hughes, an occupational therapist. That is particularly important to kids with disabilities who often are told or feel they can't do some things, she said.
Graf said players are not isolated loners.
"I could not play this game unless other people, my friends, were playing it," he said. "It would be boring unless I had someone to talk to ... and with new content coming out all the time, there is always something to do."
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